Mu Erpang said this as a joke to lighten the atmosphere.
However, no one could laugh at this point. If another Liu Xuezheng really appeared, not only Mu Erpang, who had a weakness in poetry and prose, would be unable to cope with it. In addition to Mei Ruochu and Shen Aoshuang, Wei Shu and Wei Xi would also be very tired.
Later on, Lao Buyu went out to inquire about news more frequently.
This time he did not go to the teahouse, but specifically looked for merchants from the capital.
Since ancient times, merchants have been ranked last among the four classes of scholars, farmers, merchants and artisans. In this dynasty, merchants do not have a high status, and some arrogant scholars are unwilling to interact with them, but they are very well-informed.
By June, Lao Buyu had actually found out some things that others didn't know.
"I was wondering how it could be such a coincidence. Liu Xuezheng, who was good at poetry and prose, was originally a doctor in the Ministry of Rites, and served in the same department as our current Shangshu Wang. It was not a coincidence. It was because Shangshu Wang was good at poetry and prose, and Liu Xuezheng happened to be talented in poetry and prose. After entering the Ministry of Rites, he was favored by Shangshu Wang, who regarded him as a half-disciple. Liu Xuezheng's career was much smoother than that of his peers."
When Mu Erpang heard the news, he couldn't make any jokes anymore.
Doesn’t this mean that Shangshu Wang is an enhanced version of Liu Xuezheng?
No longer relying on luck, Mu Erpang started his poetry training again.
In the past two years, Mu Erpang initially received special training under the guidance of Lao Buyu and Mei Ruochu. Later, Shen Aoshuang joined the academy and provided him with another set of ideas and methods for writing poetry.
Mu Erpang has a very strong ability to absorb things, and his poems and essays have reached a higher level than before.
But perhaps he was not born with this talent. Even though Mu Erpang has tried his best, the poems he writes are still not comparable to those written by Mei Ruochu and Chen Aoshuang. Even when he performs well, he can at most be on par with those written by Wei Xi and Wei Shu.
This time, the others wanted to help him with special training, but Mu Erpang refused. "We are taking the same provincial examination, and time is very tight. Even if you spend half an hour more for me, you will have half an hour less to review. Besides, it's been so long, do you have any hidden tricks?"
They didn't know the situation in other academies, but in Cuiwei, the young men were as close as brothers and sisters, so naturally they would not hide anything.
Of course, the others said no. Mu Erpang then smiled and said, "Isn't that enough? You have taught me everything you can. I have also had special training several times before. My mother has kept all the information. I will read it myself, understand it myself, and share it with everyone when I have experience."
In August, the provincial examination was about to begin.
There were three provincial examinations, each lasting three days. Candidates were not allowed to go out during the examinations, and they had to enter the examination room one day in advance for each examination.
That is to say, you have to enter the examination hall on August 8th, August 11th and August 14th. You can only go home to take a nap during the period, and the rest of the time you have to stay in the examination hall.
So it’s no wonder that houses in Shusheng Lane are in short supply and it’s hard to find a room. At a time like this, if the accommodation is far away, it will definitely be a big problem!
After entering August, Lao Buyu suggested that Shen Cui should not take the teenagers out - although reviewing lessons is important, under Shen Cui's leadership for many years, everyone also knows the importance of physical health and has always had the habit of exercising for two quarters of an hour to half an hour every day.
Right now, this small house is not very open and it is not convenient to do morning exercises, so every day Shen Cui will take everyone out for a half-hour walk after dinner to exercise and relax the young people's minds.
Lao Buyu was not speaking without purpose, but said: "At present, Linnan Prefecture has gathered scholars from all over the province, but not many of them are famous. Ruochu and Erpang are often mentioned by people outside... We must be on guard against them."
There was no need to say too much, Shen Cui immediately understood that Lao Buyu was afraid that someone in the same exam had bad intentions and was attacking a strong competitor before the exam.
Chen Cui naturally agreed. After telling the young men, Cui Fei suddenly realized, "Three years ago, Yun Chuan and I came to take the exam. I remember one time when we went out, we ate something casually outside, and I had diarrhea for several days. He didn't have a serious problem because he didn't eat much. Another time, we went out together and passed by a restaurant, and a flower pot suddenly fell from the upstairs... At that time, I just thought it was a case of acclimatization and an accident, so I thought it was..."
With this lesson learned, and since the young men in Cuiwei were not the playful type, they all buried themselves in their studies in the small house and did not go out.
On the seventh day, Chen Cui began to check everyone's luggage - unlike the prefectural examination, although one also had to stay in the luggage for several days, the number of candidates in the provincial examination, which was a higher level, was so large that the court could not provide enough, and except for clean water, everything had to be prepared by the candidates themselves. Even the test papers have to be prepared by the candidates themselves. They need to hand in twelve pieces of paper in advance and pay a printing fee.
Pens, ink, paper, inkstone, candles, clothes and bedding are the most basic things, and dry food should also be prepared carefully.
Some candidates would bring rice and kerosene stoves and cook their own meals there.
The young men from Cuiwei had rarely been to the kitchen, so they were afraid that they would use it carelessly. In addition, Mei Ruochu's luck was unstable, and Chen Cui would not take the risk, so they decided to prepare ready-made things.
Although everyone says that the fried rice and fried flour in the previous system are ok to eat, if you eat them for three days in a row, you will definitely lose your appetite.
Chen Cui bought special steamed buns from the system that would not go moldy for three days. She fried the buns until they were crispy and then cut them into thumb-sized pieces.
In terms of dishes, the system also sells dried vegetables, which do not need to be cooked separately, just soak them in water. In weather like this, you don’t have to worry about gastrointestinal problems due to not having hot meals.
In addition, she also steamed a few sausages, chopped them into small pieces, and added dried vegetables, so that they could have both meat and vegetables for every meal.
Chen Cui also prepared two large bamboo tubes for each of them - clean water would be provided in the examination room, so one of the two bamboo tubes was filled with refreshing drinks, and the other was filled with fruit and vegetable juice.
There are also mosquito and insect repellents. There are a lot of mosquitoes, rats and ants in August. There are also cooling oil, fire sticks, earplugs, face towels...
Finally, the medicine that I bought for Mu Erpang earlier, which controls excretion but has no side effects on the body, must be taken by everyone.
Chen Cui racked her brains and spent all her money on shopping in the system. She emptied her pockets for the first time and asked them to take everything she could think of. In the end, each of the boys was left with a heavy bag.
These things looked commonplace, but each one was very trivial, so Chen Cui was quite concerned about it. For several days in a row, she was afraid that she would miss something, and she thought about it even in her dreams.
Because there were a large number of candidates, the list was released on the seventh day, and the candidates were divided into several waves to enter the examination room.
On Cuiwei's side, except for Mei Ruochu who was in the first batch and needed to enter at midnight, everyone else was in the second or third batch.
This was a random event, and the imperial court specially divided students with close hometowns into different batches, so it can't be said to be bad luck.
In a blink of an eye, it was the eighth day of the first lunar month, and it was time to enter the provincial examination.
Because the students entered at different times, it would be too much trouble for Chen Cui and Lao Buyu to send them off as they did before, so the young men discussed and agreed not to let them do so.
Before dawn that day, Mei Ruochu carried his luggage to report. Later, Mu Erpang and the others got up and entered the examination room in batches.
What Chen Cui is most worried about, of course, is Mei Ruochu, whose luck is unpredictable.
Actually, it was a good thing that Mei Ruochu was the first to enter. This way, even if he was delayed for a lot of time, he would still have enough time to rest later.
Several months had passed between the imperial examination and the provincial examination, and Mei Ruochu's luck value had been restored to 90 by Chen Cui, and he also had a few more lucky clothes on.
However, the body search during the provincial examination was as strict as the main examination, requiring all clothes to be removed. Each of the 50 points of luck was deducted, leaving Mei Ruochu with only 40 points left.
His mental quality has always been very strong, and Shen Cuiguang cannot tell whether he has entered the examination room just by looking at the numerical value.
He waited for half an hour, then called up his Q-version figurine. Upon closer inspection, he found that such a long time had passed, but Mei Ruochu's figurine was still shirtless - he hadn't even entered the venue yet!
…………
Inside the examination room of the Imperial Academy, Mei Ruochu still couldn't put his clothes back on.
After everyone in the same batch had gone in and the next batch of candidates was about to arrive, an officer outside the curtain came and asked them what was going on here.
The sergeant in charge of the body search reported: "Your Excellency, when this candidate was searched, the bamboo tube he was carrying suddenly leaked out, and the contents inside had a peculiar smell and bright colors that we have never seen before. In addition, it was still hot at this time, and this man was wearing three belts and two outer clothes, and his behavior was strange. That's why we questioned him for a long time."
The officer outside the curtain asked again: "Does he have anything hidden on him?"
The soldier said no, so the officer outside the curtain asked Mei Ruochu to put on his clothes first - after all, this was a provincial examination, and the other party was already a scholar with honors, and it was really humiliating to let him be half naked.
Then the officer outside the curtain personally watched the soldiers check his bag from inside to outside again.
After a while, the sergeant began to feel strange. It was not because he was surprised that he could not find any cheating tools. After all, he had searched for it no less than ten times, so he already had an idea of what was going on.
Instead, he was surprised at himself. There were so many strange people among the literati, and this was not the first year that he was in charge of the investigation and security of the provincial examination. The water this person brought was a bit strange, but there are always people who bring all kinds of refreshing drinks, and some are even outrageous, bringing deer penis wine and tiger penis wine. Compared with those people, what's the problem with this guy carrying two jars of colored water?
As for clothing, perhaps this person is afraid of cold by nature. I heard that people with this physique are cold all over in May and June. It is really common for scholars to be weak, have poor physical condition or suffer from some cold disease.
So what's all the fuss about? He actually detained a scholar like a thief until now, searching and interrogating him repeatedly.
The soldier was puzzled, but finally agreed to let him go, and politely apologized to Mei Ruochu.
This kind of scene was nothing new to Mei Ruochu, so he did not get angry, and only said, "You performed your duties conscientiously, and I dare not blame you."
Then he sat in his examination seat. Shen Cui finally felt relieved.
Naturally, Mu Erpang and the others who came after him had it much smoother than him. They were all seated safely within just fifteen minutes after entering the venue.
The rooms for the provincial examination were more advanced than the ones Mu Erpang had seen before. Although they were just as cramped inside, with two wooden boards of varying heights, at least both sides were made of bricks, and the soundproofing was slightly better than before, so that even the sighs of the people next to you could be heard clearly.
In addition, there is a toilet under the low wooden board used as a seat and bed, which can solve that problem. As long as you don't force yourself to go to the toilet, you don't have to worry about being hit by a shit stick.
However, the room still has no door, and a few steps away are other candidates who have never met each other. If you just want to pee, it is easy to do it by turning your back and facing inside. But if you poop while sitting on the toilet... it is really smelly.
But fortunately, Chen Cui had asked them to take the medicine in advance, so the people from Cuiwei didn't have to worry about this problem.
After they sat down, they first familiarized themselves with the environment, then took out the moxa sticks given by Chen Cui and started fumigating, then placed insect-repellent incense in the corner of the room, wiped the wooden board with a rag, and finally put two wooden boards together, curled up on the boards, and quietly waited for the exam to officially start the next day.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
